


Unsung

by Karasuno Volleygays (ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor)



Series: Sportsfest 2018 [41]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, you can tear guitar playing iwa from my cold dead fingers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 21:39:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15981038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor/pseuds/Karasuno%20Volleygays
Summary: Tooru can't help falling for his best friend, and it isn't easy to deal with when he thinks Hajime is falling for someone else. Can he make himself do the right thing for both of them, even if it isn't what he wants?





	Unsung

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Sportsfest 2018 bonus round 2.

They do it once a year, and it's something Tooru looks forward to more than he cares to admit. Since they were eight, their parents have allowed both him and Hajime to skip school for a day and spend a long weekend at a lake up in the mountains. Their families would mingle together to hike, swim, eat junk, and all the other usual camping trip activities.

As soon as they were old enough to be trusted to their own recognizance on these trips, Tooru and Hajime would abscond into the trees for adventures of their own. Swimming, climbing trees, or just wrestling in the dirt — all the things that make a trip into the country fun. And as the sun sinks brilliantly along the horizon, they head back to camp and pile around the fire for a few songs.

Hajime started learning to play the guitar when he was seven, and from age nine on, the instrument would come along on camping trips, and those are the times Tooru has always liked best. The songs started out simple: old folk songs with lyrics everyone knows. But as they age, his skill grows and so do Tooru's complicated feelings surrounding his best friend.

The summer between their first and second years of high school, however, affects Tooru in ways he couldn't have possibly imagined.

It starts off the same, with dirt and water and memories, but as night falls, Hajime slips out and doesn't return to camp until well after dark. Tooru asks, "Where were you?"

Hajime's cheeks are pink and he doesn't quite meet Tooru's gaze. "Nowhere. Just . . . checking stuff out."

The lie is a harmless one, but Tooru can't push it out of his mind. Even while the group sings campfire songs to the strains of Hajime's guitar, Tooru's terrible voice doesn't chime in. All he can think about is why Hajime has decided to spend time elsewhere instead of with him like they've done since he can remember.

Later, when they crawl into their sleeping bags, Tooru clutches it up to his chin and stares at the ceiling of the tent. Beside him, Hajime fidgets and tosses until he finally says, "I met someone."

Tooru sits up and gapes. "You what? How? Where?"

"Yesterday, when I went to take a whiz while you were screaming like a little girl when you found that tick on your butt." When Tooru squawks in objection, Hajime chucks his pillow and continues. "I bumped into her while her folks were setting up the tents. Her name is Junko."

Swallowing hard, Tooru wraps his arms around his knees to suppress a shiver. He's always known this would come. No matter how ardently Tooru likes to joke about it, Hajime would never have stayed single forever. He's smart, attractive, and one of the best athletes in the school. Only Hajime's dedication to the club has warded off the eventuality of him being ensnared by some girl who bats her eyes the right way.

And now this nebulous figure of a girl has a name, and Tooru wishes he didn't know. Meanwhile, Hajime smiles on, his hands tucked behind his head while he hums.

"I think I want to write her a song."

Tooru lies back down and huddles into his sleeping bag. "I'm sure it'll be terrible and she'll love it."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm dumb and hideous. She seems to like me well enough."

"Yeah." Tooru bites his lip, and it's a long while before he can manage to sleep.

The next day, Hajime disappears early, and Tooru's skin crawls with the idea of him being with _her_. Instead of gallivanting around the countryside with his best friend, he sits on the shore of the lake, skipping stones and staring off into the distance. It's nearly dinnertime before Hajime returns to camp, flushed and grinning.

On the beach next to Tooru, he sprawls out on the sand and says, "Man, girls are nice. I think she might kiss me tomorrow."

"Yeah." Tooru's gut churns uncomfortably, and the urge to throw up is slowly mounting. "That's great, Iwa-chan."

Hajime stiffens next to him. "What the hell's with that tone of voice? You sound like you just ate shit."

"I'm fine." Tooru can hear the pout in his voice but can't help it. "I hope Junko-chan is nearsighted."

Eyeing Tooru for a long, intense minute, Hajime relents and stands. "Yeah, don't think I don't know when you're being weird. I'll figure it out, and then you're gonna get over whatever funk you're in. See you at dinner."

Tooru doesn't respond; he can't. His throat is tight and his eyes itch, and as soon as Hajime is out of sight, he buries his face in his knees and lets his heartbreak and frustration drip out into the sand. When Hajime returns and graces the camping group with a song, Tooru opts to stay in the tent.

On the final day of the outing, Tooru can't even pretend to have fun. His mother asks about his mood but leaves him be when he doesn't bother answering. Once again, Hajime slips out to see Junko and Tooru just stays in the tent until it's time to break down camp and head back to Sendai.

It's almost time to leave before Hajime returns, aglow with a phone number scrawled on his arm. "She wants to meet up soon and see a movie."

Tooru's hand tightens around the tent poles in his grasp until he feels the plastic protesting through the skin of his palms. "Don't"

Hajime freezes next to him. "What?"

"Don't call her, Hajime." Tooru lets out a wet sniffle and busies his shaking hands with finishing up the packing. "If you do, I don't want to hear about it."

Grabbing Tooru's arm, Hajime turns him around and glares. "That's a real jackass thing to say. You're supposed to be my best friend. Why are you being like this?"

Tooru wants to scream at him, to make Hajime know how hurt and lonely he's felt for the past three days, but the words won't come out. Instead, he just bites his lip and cries.

Hajime tugs him in for a tight embrace and heaves a heavy sigh. "I don't know what's wrong with you, but I —" He pulls back to gape at Tooru, jaw slack. "You're jealous."

Averting his gaze, Tooru squeezes his eyes shut to block out the anger he knows his coming. Anger Hajime has ever right to direct at him. It's petty and pathetic and not something a friend should inflict on another, no matter how he may feel, but he can't help it.

"You are, aren't you?" Hajime's hands thrust into his hair, and he shakes his head. "This is insane, Oikawa. Having a girlfriend doesn't mean I'm ditching you. I just . . . I need something in my life, all right?" He puts an arm around Tooru's shoulder and guides him away from the camp. "C'mon. I think we need to talk about something or your brain is gonna melt."

They find a large rock outcropping and sit shoulder to shoulder, and Hajime drums his fingers on his thighs. "Are you worried I'm going to stop hanging out with you?"

"No."

"Are you mad at me?"

"No."

Hajime pushes to his feet and throws his hands in the air. "What do you want me to do, exactly? I want to think about something else for a while. Feel good about myself for a change."

Tooru looks up at him and shakes his head. "I don't know."

"I can't wait around forever." Hajime drops back to his seat and hangs his head between his legs. "There's someone I like who doesn't feel that way about me, and for the first time in a while, it doesn't hurt so much."

"I know how you feel," Tooru whispers. He knows he should shut his mouth, but he's too tired of this. "I like someone who doesn't see me that way, too. I see them every day and it hurts just a little bit more every time."

Hajime gawks at him and swallows hard. "Tooru, there's something I want to tell you. You probably don't wanna know, but I'm tired of hiding it." He wrings his hands in his lap in an uncharacteristic show of apprehension.

Tooru burns to know what could make someone as self-assured as Hajime this nervous, but there is little pause in the next wave of words. "Do you know what it's like to have complicated feelings about someone who you've known forever and will only see you as a brother?"

"Unfortunately." Tooru grins the heels of his palms in his eyes. "I just want to forget feeling this way and just . . . go back to normal."

"But what do you really want?"

Tooru's eyes widen, and he meets Hajime's earnest expression. "I want to kiss him until he washes off the number written on his arm and never thinks about some girl he barely knows ever again."

A smile teases at the corner of Hajime's mouth. "You know, I might let you if you just asked me instead of being all weird and moody."

"You mean —"

Hajime rolls his eyes. "Yeah, you cranky jackass, I like you." He smiles wryly and and harrumphs. "I liked Junko because she noticed me. I knew what she wanted from me, and she knew what I wanted, all right? We just talked a lot. That's probably why when I tried to kiss her, she turned me down and said it wasn't what I wanted. She said we can be friends until I figure myself out."

"Shut up and come here." Tooru frames Hajime's face in his hands and crushes their mouths together. They reel apart breathless before meeting in the middle for an encore.

As they head back to camp with their fingers laced together, Hajime hums a tune Tooru has never heard. "What's the song, Iwa-chan?"

"Oh, just something I've been picking at. One of those whiny edgelord songs that teenagers write about feelings and shit." He shoots Tooru a grin. "Want me to play it for you?"

"A song about shit?" Tooru tugs down the rim of his eyelid and sticks out his tongue. "How unromantic."

They're both laughing as they pack the back of the car, and the change in the air between them doesn't go unnoticed by the people who have watched these two idiots dance around each other for years.


End file.
